Par parenting ‘Manny’ for Guy; Berenbaum plays pen

A mischievious boy meets his nanny match in laffer

Paramount Pictures has decided to hire “The Manny,” setting up the comedy at the Guy Walks Into a Bar production shingle, with David Berenbaum (“Elf”) penning the script.

Project is the first at Par for Guy, whose principals — Todd Komarnicki and Jon Berg — signed a first-look production deal with the studio last month (Daily Variety, Dec. 18).

“The Manny” centers on a young boy who’s mastered the art of ridding himself of nanny supervision through myriad devilish schemes. He meets his match when a well-intentioned and seemingly disasterproof male nanny proves harder to get rid of than any he has had before.

Berenbaum, who’s repped by WMA, also scripted Disney’s “The Haunted Mansion” and is penning children’s fantasy “The Spiderwick Chronicles” for Par, Nick, APG and Gotham Group. The scribe developed “The Manny” with Berg and Komarnicki, who will serve as producers with Kira Goldberg as a co-producer.

The duo said the project reflects the shingle’s mandate to develop broad-appeal, high-concept comedies along the lines of pics by John Hughes and Amblin Entertainment.

Berg and Komarnicki developed “Elf,” which has grossed $172 million domestically, as Guy Walks Into Bar’s maiden project. The shingle is developing “The Compton Cricket Project,” “The Retreat” at New Line, “Fat Chance” with Gone Fishin’ Prods., “Number One Girl” with Mark Johnson Prods., “Dillinger” with Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney co-producing and “Vikings” with Komarnicki scripting and Luc Besson’s Europa producing with Guy.